College accounting testing program bulletin no. 30; Results of th

On the two-hour Form A of the Level I Achievement Test, the median score for 3,166 first-year students tested this spring is almost two points above the norm median, which is based on th

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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING PROGRAM

Bulletin No 30

RESULTS OF THE

SPRING, 1957, COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING PROGRAM

AND SUPPLEMENTARY STUDIES

Prepared by Committee on Accounting Personnel

21 Audubon Avenue New York 32, N Y.

July, 1957

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING PROGRAM

BulletinNo 30

RESULTS OF THE

SPRING, 1957, COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING PROGRAM

AND SUPPLEMENTARY STUDIES

Prepared by Committee on Accounting Personnel

21 Audubon Avenue New York 32, N Y.

July, 1957

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING PROGRAM

Committee on Accounting Personnel

Elmer G Beamer, Chairman Norman Cogliati

Richard E Darby Philip L Defliese Robert L Dicke

S Paul Garner Paul J Graber Herbert Heaton

C Hunter Jones

C Rollin Niswonger Paul E Nye

Robert W Ruggles Leo A Schmidt Alfred M Schuyler Albert W Tolman, Jr

John H Venman Jordan B Wolf Howard W WrightJohn L Carey, Executive DirectorRobert L Kane, Jr., Educational Director

Project Office StaffBen D Wood, Director

Arthur E Traxler, Assistant Director

Robert D North, Administrative AssistantThomas Mahorney, Test Program Supervisor

PageCOOPERATING INSTITUTIONS 1

INTRODUCTION 3

SUMMARY OF TEST RESULTS 5

REVIEW OF COLLEGE ACCOUNTING TESTING

PROGRAM MEDIANS, 1946-1957 15

INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATING IN 1957 SPRING PROGRAMAcademy of Accountancy

Adams State College

A & M College of Texas

Argubright College of Business Admin

Arizona State College

Arkansas State College

Ashland College

Assumption University of Windsor

Austin Junior College

Austin Peay State College

Ball State Teachers College

Central Michigan College

Central Missouri State College

Chaffey College

Charleston School of Commerce, Inc

University of Chattanooga

Chico State College

Clarkson College of Technology

Clemson Agricultural College

Cloverland Commercial College

Drexel Institute of Technology

Duff’s Iron City Business Institute East Carolina College

Elizabethtown College Estherville Junior College Evansville College

Fairfield UniversityFairleigh Dickinson UniversityFenn College

Flint Junior CollegeFlorida Southern CollegeGallaudet College

Gannon CollegeGeorgia State CollegeGolden State CollegeGoshen College

Hanover CollegeHarding CollegeHeald’s Business CollegeHeidelberg College

Henry Ford Community CollegeHillyer College

Hofstra CollegeCollege of the Holy Cross Hope College

University of HoustonHusson College

College of IdahoIdaho State CollegeUniversity of IllinoisImmaculata CollegeIona College

State University of IowaIthaca College

Jackson Junior College Jamestown College

University of Kansas City Kent State University University of Kentucky Lamar State College of Technology

La Salle College

La Verne CollegeLawrence CollegeLebanon Valley College Lee College

Lehigh UniversityLeMoyne CollegeUniversity of LouisvilleLoyola College (Md.)Loyola University of Los AngelesLuther College

Lycoming CollegeUniversity of Maine Manhattan College Mankato State Teachers College Marquette University

1

Morris Harvey College

Mountain State Commercial College

Muhlenberg College

Muskingum College

Nasson College

University of Nevada

New York State Ag.-Tech Institute

New York State Teachers College

Niagara University

Northern Michigan College

Oberlin College

Ohio Institute of Business

Otero Junior College

Otterbein College

Pace College

College of the Pacific

Pacific Lutheran College

Pacific Union College

Parsons College

Peirce School of Business Admin

Pennsylvania Military College

Regis College (Colorado)

Regis College (Mass.)

University of Rhode Island

Rider College

Rochester Institute of Technology

University of Rochester

Roosevelt University

Rutgers University, Sch of Bus Admin

Rutgers University, University College

St Ambrose College

St Bonaventure University

St Francis College (N Y.)

St Francis College (Perma.)

St John Fisher College

St Joseph’s College (Ind.)

St Joseph’s College (Penna.)

St Martin’s College

St Mary’s College (Calif.)

St Mary’s University (Texas)

St Michael’s College

St Norbert College

St Vincent CollegeSam Houston State Teachers CollegeSan Diego State College

City College of San FranciscoSan Francisco State CollegeUniversity of San FranciscoUniversity of ScrantonSeton Hall UniversityShasta College

Siena CollegeSilliman UniversitySkagit Valley Junior CollegeUniversity of South DakotaSouthern Illinois UniversityVocational Technical Institute

of Southern Illinois UniversitySouthwestern Louisiana InstituteSpring Hill College

Strayer College of AccountancySusquehanna University

Syracuse UniversityTaft College

Temple UniversityTexas College of Arts & IndustriesTexas Christian University

Texas Western CollegeTri-State CollegeUnion CollegeUnion Junior CollegeVilla Madonna CollegeVillanova UniversityVirginia Junior CollegeVirginia Polytechnic InstituteUniversity of Virginia

Wake Forest CollegeWalla Walla CollegeWalsh Institute of AccountancyWashington and Lee UniversityState College of WashingtonWayne State UniversityWest Texas State CollegeWestchester Business SchoolWestern Michigan UniversityWheaton College

Wilkes CollegeCollege of William and MaryWisconsin State CollegeUniversity of Wisconsin (Madison)University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee)College of Wooster

University of Wyoming

In the eleventh spring College Accounting Testing Program, which took place in April and May, 1957, the number of participating colleges was 217, which was two colleges less than in the spring of 1956 and twenty-seven more than in the spring of 1955

The numbers of tests used this spring as compared with the five preced­ing spring programs were as follows:

great interest which employers have in college seniors and the need for up- to-date information on the attainment of graduating seniors It probably also reflects, to some extent, increased size of graduating classes

The percentage distribution among the tests used in the spring, 1957 program was as follows: Orientation Test, 8.7 per cent; Level I Achievement Test, 67.8 per cent; Level II Achievement Test, 21.3 per cent; and Strong Vocational Interest Blank, 2.2 per cent The two-hour form of the Level I test accounted for 36.5 per cent of the total, and the fifty-minute form for 31.3 per cent

The following tabulation shows the number of each kind of college par­ticipating in this spring’s program and the per cent of the total number of participants which this number represents

There has been little change in the percentages for the different kinds

of participating institutions during the last several spring programs More than three-fourths of the colleges taking part continue to be either liberal arts colleges or universities

3

As in preceding spring programs, the participating colleges are spread over

a wide geographical area The distribution according to region is as follows:

second-largest number Other states with ten or more participating colleges were: California, sixteen; Michigan, fifteen; and Texas, ten

In contrast to the spring program, there were small increases in the fall and midyear programs during this school year, as reported in Bulletins 28 and 29 The total number of tests serviced by the Project Office for colleges during the three programs was 26,270, as compared with 27,962 last year The decrease

in number of tests administered was 1,692, or approximately six per cent It

is believed that, in view of the rise in service charge, participation in the College Accounting Testing Program during this academic year compared as favor­ably as could be expected with earlier participation, and that increased use may be anticipated when colleges have had an opportunity to adjust their test­ing budgets to the increased charge which was necessitated by the general rise

in costs for personnel and materials needed to carry on testing services

SUMMARY OF TEST RESULTS

The tables on the following pages contain the distributions of scores and college medians for the various tests that were recommended for use in the 1957 spring program.1 At the bottom of each distribution column are statistics on the number of participants, range of scores, medians, quar­tiles, and the 10th and 90th percentile points

The program medians are indicated graphically by short, horizontal lines, and the norm medians, based on the results of previous programs, are represented by the broken lines extending across the distribution columns The ranges of the middle 50 per cent of the scores in this program are

marked by the vertical lines

Where there are a sufficient number of cases, the results of tests ad­ministered on a voluntary participation basis are shown separately For purposes of classification, a test is considered to have been administered

on a voluntary participation basis when less than 90 per cent of the stu­dents in a given class took the test

An overview of the test results is given in the paragraphs below

Achievement Test, Level I.- Form A-S, a fifty-minute form of the I-A test, was introduced in the 1956 spring program and was used for the second time this spring The results for first- and second-year students are

shown in Table I At the first-year level, the 1957 median for the group

of 3,557 students is two and one-half raw score points above the 1956

median The median for the 340 second-year students is not quite a point above the corresponding median of last spring At both levels, the scores extend over the complete range of sixty points

On the two-hour Form A of the Level I Achievement Test, the median score for 3,166 first-year students tested this spring is almost two points above the norm median, which is based on the combined results of the spring programs of 1952, 1954, and 1956 The medians for the smaller groups of second- and third-year students are somewhat less favorable, falling below the corresponding norm medians by a fraction of a point at the second-year level and by about four and a half points at the third-year level These results are shown in Table II In ten colleges, the Level I, Form A, test was administered to a total group of 252 first-year students on a volun­tary participation basis As will be seen from Table III, approximately two-thirds of these students have scores above the norm median

The reprinted edition of the I-A test that was used this spring in­corporated some changes in terminology and dates, which were made to bring the test up to date The format of Part IV was also revised in this edi­tion, with a view to improving its readability Evidently these modifica­tions did not have any pronounced effect on the test results this spring,

as compared with previous years, Judging from the relative standing of the medians of the groups tested on a required participation basis

1A participating institution may obtain a confidential copy of this bul­letin marked to show the placement of its own medians in the distributions

5

The scores of the 374 students at the second- and third-year levels who took Farm D of the Level II Achievement Test on a required participa­tion basis are widely distributed, and the group median is about a point and a half below the norm median for the combined spring programs of 1952 through 1956 The median of the small group of sixty-seven students at the same grade level who took the test on a voluntary participation basis

is substantially higher than that of the group tested on a required partici­pation basis, and about three-quarters of the voluntary participants rank above the norm median (Table IV)

The results for seniors on the Level II Achievement Tests are shown in Table V On both the two-hour Form D and the four-hour Form B, the medians

of the senior groups that were tested on a required participation basis are quite close to the norm medians The group of 125 seniors tested with

Form D on a voluntary participation basis has a median score which is about four and one-half points above the norm median

Orientation Test.- Although the Achievement Tests are stressed in the spring program, the Orientation Test is also offered for use when a measure

of aptitude is desired This spring, Form A of the Orientation Test was administered to a sufficient number of first-year students to justify the preparation of distribution tables as shown in Tables VI and VII In the case of the 562 students tested on a required participation basis, the

verbal median is about equal to the norm median, which is based on the

combined results of the spring programs of 1954-56 The quantitative

median of this group is almost three points above the corresponding norm median, and the total score median exceeds the norm median by about three and one-half points The medians for the group of 155 first-year students tested on a voluntary participation basis are within a point or two of

those of the required participation group

Summary.- In the main, the 1957 spring program medians for the groups tested on a required participation basis are quite close to the norm medians derived from the results of spring programs of recent years In relation to these norm medians, there are differences in favor of the first-year groups this spring on both the fifty-minute and two-hour forms of the Level I test and on the quantitative and total score scales of the Orientation Test The medians for the third-year group on the I-A test and the median for the combined second- and third-year group on the two-hour form of the Level II test are somewhat below the corresponding norm medians With respect to the groups tested on a voluntary participation basis, the median of the first-year group on the I-A test and the median of the combined second- and third-year group on the II-D test are substantially above the corresponding norm medians The Orientation Test medians for the first-year voluntary participants are just slightly above the norm medians, and they are not appreciably different from those of the group tested on a required partici­pation basis

7TABLE I

DISTRIBUTIONS OF SCORES AND COLLEGE MEDIANS ON ACHIEVEMENT TEST,

LEVEL I, FORM A-S, IN CLASSES WHERE THE TEST WAS REQUIRED OR WHERE

90 PER CENT OF THE STUDENTS, OR MORE, TOOK IT ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS

-—Medians, spring program, 1956

Score

FIRST YEAR Scores of Medians of Individuals Colleges

SECOND YEARScores of Medians ofIndividuals Colleges